Well, you have definitely a lot of leverage by being a Manager. For the better or worse, you have much more leeway and can push the developer out of the company

Well, you have definitely a lot of leverage by being a Manager. For the better or worse, you have much more leeway and can push the developer out of the company if you want. But that would make you a terrible Manager, like others in many companies. One think that might help you to digest that situation better is that... while he has to write features and make things work in your company, all you need to do is mostly play politics and you have much more time than him to make yourself look good and him... that is actually in the trenches making the company work, bad. This is why you as a Manager, you should actually help him to work effectively. To me, he looks like the carries the company and you are just there to help him do it. You need people like this in a team and need to know how to keep them happy and motivate them to also move up the ladder. If you aren't able to do that, you aren't really meant to be a Manager. I've this episode many times. Manager joins and already starts gaslighting the person who is carrying the team. Eventually person leaves and Manager is left off with an average team with silly output. Things get reorg'd and Manager keeps having a silly performance all around the company, but as they paint always with good words, things work well for the Manager. As a Manager, you are expected to have the soft skills to handle people with different personalities and have more deeper social analysis of a situation. From what I've seen, you've already called him a "prima dona" and seem to need to work on those skills. You should also be able to call the developer when they say something not nice or toxic and learn how to build him and incentivise him to change. He also must be under a lot of stress and you can only gauge that by working on the team and knowing the Developer a bit more personally. Get his trust and develop him. I've said this before, but if you aren't able to influence people in that way, you can probably have even a considerable good management career in your view and of other peers, as managers get a lot of leeway with that. But you won't be a top manager. The fact that you've labeled him like this before even getting a good gist of the situation is a red flag and tell me that there's a bit of inexperience on this from your side. Try to get this "prima dona" out of your head and instead find a way that you can both profit from this situation, He'll be helped by your coaching skills and developing people, which is, BY THE WAY, the #1 skill for a Manager. You in exchange will get a person that can perform well and grow with you and the company.